Trust.... He says...

What a week it has been.
Friday we received word that we would be able to travel in October to meet our daughter and bring her home. Friday was a day of celebration. The other days of the week were not so full of celebration.


We knew a week ago that we were going to cut it close to be able to travel in October. To be honest, I never even thought it was a possibly. My countdown said "work ready" date and then "meet Shelby" date. Meet Shelby was in November. This seemed like the more realistic date of travel and I couldn't get my hopes up. Then.... we kept being told that October was an option. Our first cut off date passed and we didn't know. October was still in the cards.  The next cut off... the same. We repeated this and started to get excited for October!

Wednesday this last week people on our exact path received their travel approval and we didn't. If we didn't receive it by Thursday we would be delayed until November. Let me tell you, Wednesday was a hard day. I was so incredibly happy for these other families but I wanted to travel with them! I wanted our Travel Approval. I doubted, I was angry, I was anything but patient and calm. I was NOT trusting God's plan.

Luckily for me, God doesn't loved me based on my ability to trust and be patient. I have the best support around me that encouraged me and talked me out of my tears. Who prayed for us and Shelby.

Thursday I woke up and was more calm. I was ready to be told we weren't going until November. I "got over" myself and accepted whatever plan was for us. Thursday as soon as our agency opened (11am our time) I received a call that our Travel Approval came through!! We aren't official just yet. We need to schedule our consulate appointment. That can't be done until Friday because of the time difference. So, we anxiously wait another 24 hours. Again, if we didn't get this Friday we wouldn't have been able to travel until November.

Friday morning, as soon as the agency opened, they called and we got the appointment! WAHOO. So we are officially traveling October 11th. Tickets are purchased!
We will meet Shelby the 16th and she will be with us for the remaining part of the trip!

We are thankful for God's plan. We are thankful we get to travel in 10 days! We are also thankful that through our doubting, God still does marvelous things!


HERE WE COME SHELBY!!!

Which countdown?

The countdown has begun... but which one? 

We are currently caught up with paperwork and just waiting for our travel approval to come through. IF and only IF that paperwork comes through in time next week, we will be traveling to meet Shelby in less than 3 weeks. 

If the paperwork does not come in this next week, we will not be traveling until November. 

How do you countdown to two dates? Its been confusing for sure. We count down to our "be ready to go" date and our "this is the furthest it will wait date". Right now our ready to go date is 20 days and our furthest date is 55 days. 

20 days seems like we will never be ready and 55 days seems so far away. 

We are nesting. 

*Starting to put Shelby's things where they go-- her toothbrush is even ready for her! 

*Setting up the nursery-- it is so peaceful and Mara loves to sleep there. 

*Creating a packing list

*Gathering our paperwork-- luckily they give us a paperwork packing list 

Those are all things on our agenda these next few weeks. 

Biggest on our list.... WAIT! There is very little planning that we can actually do until we know when we will be leaving. I. AM. A. PLANNER! God knew this when He called us to adoption. Planning has helped us complete paperwork and fundraisers. It has helped us stay organized in chaos. Being a planner is not helping us now! 

But truly right now we are just in chaos. There is anxiously waiting and chaos. We are also filled with butterflies of excitement and nerves that I have never felt before. Over all of those feelings, we are filled with more love for Shelby than we knew was possible. More love for each other than we knew was possible. And so much hope for the future. 

We will be updating our Facebook page while we are gone. "Like" us on Facebook at Creating the Campbells. Because of limited wifi use we will not be blogging until we are back. I will be sure to post again to let you know when we leave! 

We are MATCHED!

So much has happened since I last wrote.

Thank you to everyone who bought tickets, grilled chicken, cooked, and helped us hand out chicken at our fundraiser! We are so thankful. With the money raised we reached our next milestone! 

Surprise: We are adopting from CHINA! 

Remember all of that paperwork that are ran around collecting and getting notarized, certified, and authenticated?!?! We sent it all to China! 

Once our paperwork was logged we had a "match" call with our agency. The call was to explain the match process. During that phone call we reviewed our medical check list. Adam and I felt great after this call. We were so happy to finally have our paperwork in the correct county. We put dates in our calendars for 6 months from now. Dates to remind us to renew our paperwork. Dates to remind us to check in with our agency. We were told the matching process would take about 8 months. 

Fast forward 7 days...... Michelle got a phone call. WE WERE MATCHED!!!! Shocked and crying, not knowing what to ask or say, Michelle hung up and immediately called Adam. And then we got the email. The  file. The picture. The statistics. We saw Shelby Jane for the first time. We were even able to watch a video of Shelby. We fell in love. 

Once we received the file, the work began. 

We had Shelby's file reviewed by three sets of doctors. Shelby is a 20 month old, beautiful little girl, who is now our daughter. She is a blessing to us already!! Shelby has a genetic blood disorder that requires blood transfusions. Luckily for us, CHOP in Philadelphia has a fantastic clinic that will help us with the best treatment plan for Shelby! 

After everyone completed their review of the file we were able to write our Letter of Intent. Our letter of Intent was mailed to China!!! 

This means....

*We are waiting for our Letter of Acceptance 

*We will travel in October or November to meet Shelby and bring her home with us! 

*We will be paying our orphanage fees in July 

*We still have to raise/save around $13,000

*Prayers are welcome for us and Shelby Jane! 

During our fundraising efforts we were given a $2,500 matching grant! Any money given through the link below will be doubled (up to $2,500). All of this money will go towards our final costs and help us go get Shelby. 

https://www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate/
Select: adoption
Be sure to include our family number (6870) and names.

Feel free to share our page or blog. Have questions about this process? Questions about Shelby? Questions about money or financing? Ask! 

It has been months.... months since I have blogged.
Here are some updates of what is going on around us right now.

We are getting closer. This process seems so long and work intensive sometimes but we are making progress. Each little step is really a big step in the right direction. While we have not completed the next big step of sending our Dossier we are a lot of little steps closer! All of our documents are gathered, all are notarized, all are certified by the state, and as of moments ago they are all being mailed to the consulate to be authenticated.
Having our lives paperwork in someone else's hand is nerve wrecking! We have been blessed with so many people in our lives who love us and often carry us through when we are overwhelmed.
Just today at UPS as I am overnighting everything we have worked so hard for these last 6 months... the lady (who knows us really well at this point) was a breath of fresh air in her comfort to me and care of our documents. And the stranger at UPS that said they would be praying over a safe delivery and quick process for us reminded me again that we are no alone on this journey.


Baby Campbell's village is so big already!

What is next? We wait for our documents to be returned. (Hopefully by the end of next week) Once they are in our hands again we add some other paperwork to it and mail it off to our agency. They will eventually send our Dossier. I am not sure how long they take to process all of the paperwork.

In the meantime.... blessings continue. We have friends and family who are planning and executing fabulous fundraiser for us. I have them listed all below:


Adam and I have been blessed by the Nelson family long before we realized this was the path for our lives. They have continued to support us in every way and have surprised us again with an amazing fundraiser. The Nelsens own the Glass Lounge in Harrisburg PA. They, unknowing to us, had a puzzle made with out announcement picture. For the entire month of April they will be selling puzzle pieces ($2.50 each) so that everyone can literally help us build our family. For each puzzle piece that someone purchases their names will be entered to win a $50.00 glass lounge gift certificate. The puzzle has already been started. I will post updated pictures on our Facebook page as the month continues. If you'd like to help us build our puzzle you can send payment to The Glass Lounge at 4745 North Front Street Harrisburg PA 17110. (be sure to include fundraiser on the memo) You can also call (717)255-9919 to do it over the phone with a credit card. But the best way would be to go eat a delicious meal and put the puzzle piece on yourself!

Michelle's parents and Adam will be doing a yard sale fundraiser on April 29th in Hershey Pa. If would like to rent a take for $20.00 to set up your own yard sale or have any donations for us to sell, please contact us at creatingthecampbells@gmail.com.

Adam is still selling candy bars for another fundraiser. If you have a place of work or social gathering that you think you'd be able to take a box with you, please let us know. We still have about 10 boxes that need homes and candy bars that are ready to be eaten!

Family photos are back!! Marta has so graciously volunteered to do another photo day for us. The photos will be taken at Fort Hunter on May 13th. The cost is $80 per 30 minutes and $150 for an hour session. You will get all pictures on a DVD and have rights to the pictures! 1/2 of the money goes directly to help bring baby campbell home! This is a great opportunity to get "mommy and me" or generation photos done for mothers day gifts! If you'd like to sign up please email creatingthecampbells@gmail.com.

Thank you all for going on this wild ride with us. We can't wait to see what doors open next!

November comes to a close...

Thank you everyone who has followed our journey. We are approaching 10 months since we sent in our application. 10 months!?! Wow. Seems like its been so long but in the reality of adoption, we are just at the beginning. 

With November coming to a close, I wanted to take some time to reflect on our first Adoption Month as future adoptive parents. Wow! We were busy! We did a lot of fundraisers this month with the help of our family and friends. 

We started with our cape and dress sales. (they end today so if you want to order please follow the links!) We are excited to see how successful the fundraiser was for baby Campbell. We are hoping that with your help, we were able to spread the word enough! 

dresses: http://tinyurl.com/dressforacause

capes: http://tinyurl.com/capesforacause

We also had a wonderful burger night at a local restaurant.(The Warwick) Our friend Karyn set it up for us. We don't know exactly how much we raised but the Warwick was so helpful and kind to us the entire evening.  We do know that we felt so loved the entire night. Each time the door opened more and more love came through. Thank you everyone who enjoyed a tasty burger that night. Thank you for the hugs. Thank you for being part of our village. 

That same night, at the same time, another friend of ours was hosting a Lularoe fundraiser for us. Michelle met Margaret through Lularoe while picking up a (beautiful!) skirt. Margaret put her inventory on Facebook and let her ladies shop. Through the purchases they made, they raised $500! Margaret was extremely gracious and donated $500 making the grand total $1,000. It was such a blessing to us to meet Margaret and have her be so generous. We felt so supported by strangers encouraging us and supporting us all while buying amazing clothes! (Check out her Facebook page: Lularoe Margaret Miller) 

and it continues.... 

Baked with Love. That's what they say right? But really this bread was baked with love. Michelle's mom baked and sold home made butter braid bread for Thanksgiving. The time spent mixing, needing, baking, and wrapping was all done in love for baby Campbell. Because of her efforts and donation of all the supplies... she raised over $300! Thank you to everyone who ordered bread. I hope you were able to share it around a big table at Thanksgiving. Or maybe keep it all to yourself! 

We currently do not have any fundraisers planned for December or 2017. We cancelled our babysitting event because of lack of interest. If anyone has ideas please let us know! We love to have help brainstorming. 

As far as the paperwork part of the adoption.... we are waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting. It is still our hope that we will have our home study by Christmas so that Michelle can start the grant writing process! 

Please continue to pray for our fundraising, home study completion, dossier paperwork, and the determination to keep going even when we are told to wait! We are so thankful for you! 

Adoption Awareness Month Begins

WOW!
We are shocked.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Our Pumpkin Glow Bake sale raised over... wait for it..... $1,300!

This has been our best fundraiser yet.

We had 15 bakers for this event. We had 8 helpers the day of the events.

What was sold? Hot Dogs, Chips, Cookies, Popcorn, Brownies, Popcorn, Hot Chocolate, and Candy.

We were blessed with great weather this weekend and a tent to shield us from the wind.


What is the most amazing thing about this event? Community. Michelle (I) was not among the bakers or helpers. I drove around and collected items but when it came down to it, I was home recovering from surgery. I couldn't say thank you to each person that dropped items off at to sell. I couldn't say thank you to each person that set up and helped at the event. I couldn't help. For me, that is hard.
But with this awesome community around us, this fundraiser was a huge success!


November is Adoption Awareness Month. I will be sharing facts and information about what adoption is and how it works all month. We will also be doing a lot of fundraisers this month.

Who are the children that are adopted? Although the typical profile of child varies depending on the country you are adopting from, on average, most children are boys and girls between 2-3 years old at the time they arrive home. In 2015, 75 percent of children placed through Holt International had some special needs, whether minor or correctable, considered healthy in the US, or more moderate.  (holtinternational.org)


Please save the date: November 16th: Warwick Burger Night. $1 from every burger sold will go to baby campbell. (Local to Hummelstown PA)

We've been given an amazing opportunity to be a feathered family for this cape and dress sale! How cure are there?!?! Take a look at the link below and select "Creating the Campbells" in the dropdown menu if you are interested in ordering! These would also make a GREAT Christmas gift for the Superhero or Princess in your life!
DRESSES  tinyurl.com/dressforacause and CAPES  tinyurl.com/capesforacause.

We are looking forward to both fundraisers for different reasons. The burger night will be so fun to get together with friends and build our village for Baby Campbell and the capes and dresses are a great way to get everyone involved. Please share the links to friends and family that you think may be interested. The more sharing we have the more successful this will be!

PHEW!

2 Months... It has been 2 months since I have written a Blog. Why? Because adoption is hard. Really hard. There are good days and not so good days.

I have been told that adoption is not for the faint of heart. I completely understand why they have said that.


What has happened? Let's start with the hard stuff and move on to the happy and now!

We had our home study. We were so excited! We didn't know what to expect and of course were anxious for the day to arrive. Once it was finally here, we were ready.

During the adoption process we have to prove that every part of our life is good enough for a child. They asked questions such as: How are we going to support a child? (financially) What do we not like about each other? How will we handle a child with special needs? Etc.

We did a quick tour of the house to ensure that our rooms were big enough and our house is "good enough" for a child.

I say we are guilty until proven innocent. This can become taxing. We try to stay positive.

During the home study we learned that there was information and paperwork that needed to be done months ago that we were never told about. The information that they needed was our "net worth". All I heard was that we weren't "worth enough". Meaning we weren't good enough. I was heart broken. I was angry. I was sad. I cried. How can someone say we aren't worth enough?? We aren't good enough??   Someone that hasn't met us or only met us once. Since when does money make you a good parent?

Long story short, after hours of work and doing a complete inventory of our house and lives were were able to move on to the next part.  I was exhausted.

We scheduled our second visit. Yesterday was that visit. We were asked to fill out a long relationship questionnaire prior to our social work coming to the house. Of course, we did it that night and sent it along. During this home study, the social worker spent 1.5 hours with me and 1.5 hours with Adam. The questions this time were about our family.

We were asked to give 5 adjectives about each of our parents and memories that went along with them, we discussed relationship with siblings and our nieces. We answered a lot of the same questions that we answered during our psych eval.

Adam asked if we failed our home study! Our social worker said "not by a long shot". This gave me enough peace of mind to enjoy the night. Adam and I ended the night with a sushi date.

Today when I got off work I had an email saying that there was no concern and that we would make great parents. This was the BEST email I have ever received!

We now wait. We wait for our home study to be written and sent to us. Then, we can move on to our international paperwork!



FUNDRAISING!
We have been busy fundraising and planning during this time. We have a lot of fundraisers coming up.
In October, we did a family picture fundraiser. Thanks to Marta and Jessica the families are blessed with gorgeous pictures and we were blessed with over $500 to add to baby campbell's account! We are so thankful!
Next weekend we will be hosting the bake sale at the Pumpkin Glow in Hershey. If you are in the area check out the beautiful pumpkins and come say Hi!

November is Adoption Awareness Month. I will be posting again soon. Save the date for upcoming fundraisers.
All month- We will be selling capes! Fun for kids, great stocking stuffers.
All month- Michelle's mom will be selling homemade bread for Thanksgiving. If you would like to order bread let Michelle or Adam know!
November we will also be blessed with a LULAROE party fundraiser!


SAVE THE DATE: November 16th 5:30-?? Burger night at the Warwick. This is a local restaurant that will be donating a percent of their burger sales to our adoption! We would love to see everyone. We will be hanging out all night. Come say hi, eat a burger, and help us support baby Campbell.

Thank you everyone for your continued prayers and support during this journey. We are excited to focus on fundraising this month while we wait for our home study paperwork to be completed! While there are days that are hard, we know that this process will lead us to an amazing child that will become ours. We forge on. We don't give up. We stay as positive as possible. We put on our big girl/boy clothes and take another step! We focus on one day at a time. One task at a time. No matter what happens, we will not stop. We will continue to search for baby Campbell! We are so in love already and we don't even know who you are yet!